


You Defy My Every Expectation

by HumanDisAster03



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Kinda, M/M, No Beta We Die Like Glen, Other, Past Child Abuse, duke aegir's trash parenting, mostly - Freeform, nonbinary byleth, teatime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-17 21:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21700396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HumanDisAster03/pseuds/HumanDisAster03
Summary: Ferdinand is tired of pretending to be someone he's not, so he asks his professor for guidance.Hubert is confused by Ferdinand's changed behavior, so he sets out to investigate.(I'll add tags as the story progresses)
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 130





	1. Chapter 1

Ferdinand’s mark appears when he is ten years old. He looks at it for a moment, wondering what it means. It is a sun and moon, bound together by a dark ribbon speckled with stars; it is breathtaking, but Ferdinand cannot admire it long. His father sees him looking at the mark and slaps him. “You are an Aegir. Soulmates mean nothing for you; you will marry for the advancement of the Aegir name. You will not marry for some commoner ideal like love.”

Ferdinand nodded with tears in his eyes. His father threw a pair of gloves onto his lap. “You will wear these. No one will see that disgusting mark. If I ever catch you looking at it again, the consequences will be far more severe than a mere slap on the cheek. Do you understand?”

Ferdinand nodded again, but his father harshly took hold of his chin and forces Ferdinand to look him in the eye. “A nod is not an acceptable answer, boy. I ask again: Do you understand?”

With a shaky voice, Ferdinand replied, “Yes, Duke Aegir, I understand.”

From that day onward, Ferdinand refused to take off his gloves.

By the time he has been enrolled in the Officer’s Academy, Ferdinand is well aware that he is not fond of the Vestra heir. Hubert is rude and dismissive. All the man seems to care about is Edelgard.

Ferdinand has a deep respect for Edelgard, even though he would never show it. He respects her obvious drive and confidence, but Ferdinand was taught that he must strive to be better than the princess at any opportunity, and Ferdinand was nothing if not an obedient son.

Hubert’s distaste for Ferdinand is likely due, in part, to his fabricated rivalry with Edelgard. Hubert is also rude to nearly everyone, so Ferdinand tries to convince himself that Hubert’s words don’t cut deep. (He fails)

Every scathing remark about his uselessness, every sharp jab at his failures, every sarcastic comparison to Edelgard. They all remind him of his father’s words. They each sneak past Ferdinand’s shields of relentless optimism and dutifulness, somehow hurting more than any of his father’s hits ever could. 

It was the third month of classes, and Ferdinand was getting tired of pretending to be someone that he is not with everyone that he knows. He knew that letting go of his always-cheerful persona with everyone would be ill-advised, but he believed that there was one person that he could trust.

During the first free day of the month, Ferdinand knocked on the professor’s door, hoping they would be willing to listen to him. They opened the door and tilted their head, assessing Ferdinand with indecipherable eyes. “Hello, Ferdinand. Is there something I can help you with?”

Ferdinand sighed. “Professor, I was wondering if I could talk to you about a personal matter.”

Byleth nodded. “Come in. I would be glad to talk to you. I enjoy talking with my students about matters outside of the classroom.”

Byleth had a table set up in their room, a tea set laid out on it. Ferdinand smiled at this, being an avid lover of tea himself. Byleth sat down at the little table, and Ferdinand sat across from them.

“Professor, I have been unsure of myself lately. My entire life, I tried to be a good son, but I do not know if I can do it anymore.”

Byleth’s brow creased slightly. “What do you mean?”

Ferdinand took in a shaky breath. “My father has always told me that I have a duty to House Aegir. He said that I must make sacrifices to be a true noble and that I must hold myself to a higher standard, but I do not know if I can be the person that he wants me to be.”

Byleth began to pour a cup of tea. Ferdinand was compelled to continue speaking to fill the silence. “I was told that I must give up such baser things as soulmates and dreams of anything but surpassing Edelgard. I want to be a good noble, but I do not know if I can do so without putting childish things behind me. I also do not know if I am capable of letting them go.”

A nearly imperceptible frown was present on the professor’s face as they handed Ferdinand a cup of tea. From the smell, it was Southern Fruit Blend, his favorite. Ferdinand thanked them for the tea. Byleth nodded, then spoke, “Ferdinand, when we first met, I admit that I had judged you too harshly. I myself was guilty of comparing you to Edelgard, but I have since realized my error.

“You are a capable, compassionate, and diligent young man. You put forth your maximum effort in everything that you do. You treat people with immense kindness; I saw you helping Bernadetta with her horseback combat training last week right after you trained with Caspar and helped Mercedes make sweets for Annette.”

Ferdinand began to speak, but Byleth cut him off. “As much as you try to bury it under layers of arrogance, competitiveness, and nobility, your heart of gold shines through as bright as the sun. Anyone that tells you that you need to cover that is wrong, and their opinion should not matter to you. I am well aware that he is your father, but if he cannot appreciate having a son like you, then he is the problem, not you.”

Ferdinand drank the rest of his tea in silence, pondering what the professor had said. When he finished drinking, he thanked the professor for their time, and went to the stables to clear his head. Ferdinand felt a strange weight begin to lift itself from Ferdinand’s shoulders.

Teatime with the professor became a weekly occurrence.

__________________________________________________________________________

By second week of the sixth month of school, Hubert was getting suspicious of Ferdinand’s changing behavior.

The previous week, when Ferdinand passed the paladin certification test, and Lady Edelgard failed the wyvern rider certification, he mentioned nothing about how this achievement made him superior to Lady Edelgard. He simply told Lady Edelgard that this time was merely a fluke, and he would be perfectly willing to help her improve her flying skills to be absolutely certain that she would pass the next time.

This incident was not isolated. There were plenty of others in which Ferdinand achieved something that normally he would have demanded he be praised for, but each time, he simply thanks people for their congratulations and moves on to his next goal. Hubert was not aware that Ferdinand could be so driven.

That’s why he decided to spy on Ferdinand to get to the bottom of this strange behavior.

Ferdinand was headed towards the professor’s room for his weekly tea with them, and Hubert was watching him from the shadows. Hubert had placed a spell in the professor’s room when he spoke to them last that would allow him to hear conversations in the room through the door.

Hubert found a comfortable, hidden position nearby and listened as the teatime began.

“Ah, hello Ferdinand. How have you been feeling this week?”

“Hello professor. I would like to say that I have been doing well this week, but I do not wish to lie to you. I am sad to say that I have been having horrible nightmares lately.”

Hubert almost scoffed. Ferdinand thought to complain about nightmares when Lady Edelgard was plagued by ones of torture, pain, and death on a nightly basis? Part of Hubert thought the young noble weak. A smaller part of Hubert wondered how no one had noticed that Ferdinand wasn’t doing well.

Hubert shook his thoughts away and continued to listen.

“I am sad to hear that, Ferdinand. Do you want to talk about them?”

“Well, they are highly unpleasant, I doubt you would want to hear about them.”

“Ferdinand, I would not have asked if I minded hearing about unpleasant things. Remember, you are my student, and I wish to be of help to you whenever you need.”

Hubert heard Ferdinand take in a shaky breath before saying, “The nightmares are always about my father.”

That made no sense to Hubert. Ferdinand seemed to idolize his father. Why would he be having nightmares about the man?

Ferdinand continued, “Last night, in my dream, I kept seeing an incident from when I was a child and wanted to join the opera. My father caught me singing one of Manuela’s songs, and he slapped me so hard that I fell to the ground. I was forced to stay in my room for days so that no one would see the bruise.”

Hubert’s eyes narrowed. He was aware that Duke Aegir was in no way a good man, but hearing Ferdinand speak about his father was jarring.

He could not explain the strange pain in his chest when Ferdinand finished describing his dream. “I was seven years old, and the thing I remember with the most clarity is that all I wanted in that moment was for my father to actually love me.”

Byleth’s voice was filled with an unusual sadness. “Ferdinand, your father is a terrible man. You deserve so much better than to be treated that way at seven years old simply because you liked to sing. If you wish, I can arrange for you to be able to attend choir practice, if you still like to sing.”

“Thank you, professor. I appreciate the offer, but ever since that day, I have been wary of singing in the presence of others.”

“Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

Hubert decided that he’d heard all that he’d like to hear. He felt that odd pain in his chest, but he also felt a slight itching on the back of his hand, bringing to his mind the sun, moon, and stars that Hubert had pushed from his mind long ago.


	2. Chapter 2

Ferdinand was making his way back to his room from his weekly meeting with the professor when he felt a pair of eyes watching him from the shadows. By now, he had become accustomed to constantly being watched by Hubert, and was mostly unfazed by the idea of being followed by the other man. Ferdinand was in an odd mood after his discussion with the professor, and thus he decided to call out, "You know, Hubert, if you want to speak with me, you are free to say whatever it is that you wish to say."

Hubert approached from the shadows with an eyebrow raised. "Am I truly so obvious? If so, I must strive to become less conspicuous in the future...I suppose you would like to know why I am following you?" 

"Well, that would be nice, yes."

Hubert narrowed his eyes. "I want to know why you have weekly tea parties with the professor. I find it strange that a person who is so busy schedules time out of their week to drink such a disgusting drink with someone as annoying as you." 

Hubert's words stung slightly, but Ferdinand did not let that show outwardly. "The professor and I talk about personal matters. They are nothing you need concern yourself over." 

"What, you get together with the professor to talk about soulmates? What childishness."

"Actually, soulmates are one of the few topics that I have openly refused to discuss with the professor. I do not like to discuss such things." Ferdinand's eyes were averted. 

Hubert's brow was furrowed. "That's strange, I had always expected you to be the type that set inordinate amounts of faith in the soulmate system. You've never struck me as a pragmatist."

"That is because I am not a pragmatist. I simply have had negative experiences with the concept of soul marks. Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to go to bed; just mentioning this subject has brought about some incredibly uncomfortable memories."

________________________________________________________

As Ferdinand walked away with all of the dignity that he could muster, Hubert was left to contemplate Ferdinand's words. He got the sinking feeling that the uncomfortable memories that Ferdinand referred to had something to do with the story that he had recounted to the professor. 

What could Duke Aegir have done to make an unrelenting optimist like Ferdinand hate to even think about the concept of soulmates. Hubert was not overly fond of the notion that the person with the matching mark should come before all else, believing that he had no time to be wasted on such trivial matters as love. There was too much at stake to risk everything he and Edelgard had built for the mark that branded his hand. But Ferdinand, on the other hand, was a man who seemed to be a romantic at heart, and always tried to see the best in people. 

For some reason, the thought that someone could ruin something like soulmates for a man like that filled Hubert with a strange sense of rage. If asked, he would not be able to explain why, but he was almost overcome by an intense desire to take the dagger he always kept on his person and plunge it into Duke Aegir's throat.

As Hubert began to lose himself in thought, he found himself standing outside the professor’s room. For a moment, he considered knocking on the door, but ultimately turned away. He did not trust the professor enough to go to them with such personal problems. Besides, they were not his problems, they were Ferdinand’s. So why did Hubert seem to care so much?

  
Inside their room, Byleth heard the approaching footsteps of Hubert von Vestra, one of the few students that they had so far been unable to reach. Most of the students in the monastery had tea with them at least twice a month, though some came more often. Namely, Ferdinand, Sylvain, and Marianne.   
Byleth was disappointed, but in no way surprised when the footsteps grew fainter, indicating that Hubert had walked away. As much as they wanted all of their students to open up to them, they knew that pressing certain students would only lead to disaster, Hubert chief among them. Even so, Byleth would not give up on him. They always paired him with Ferdinand during stable duty, hoping that the two would be able to set aside their differences and realize all of the things that they have in common.   
Though, the stable duty business was also influenced by the fact that Byleth could see the brilliant red thread that connected their hands to each other, and Byleth loved to be able to help people find their soulmates, since they themself could not. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have strong feelings about characters trying to live up to their parent's expectations, but realizing that their parents were wrong and that they can make decisions for themselves.
> 
> My plan for this fic is for Byleth to essentially adopt all of the students who are orphaned or have shitty parents (so like, everyone), so expect some definite appearances from Sylvain, Felix, Bernadetta, Dimitri, etc.


End file.
